When it comes to a musical mantra, Fuzz Sangiovanni turns to the immortal words of Carlos Santana: “If you’re going to sweep the floor, sweep it better than anybody in town. And if you’re going to play the guitar, really, really, really get in it, and don’t be jivin’.”

Sangiovanni’s drive to achieve musical perfection has served him well as the lead guitarist and vocalist of Caravan of Thieves, since the band’s inception in 2008. Over the course of three CDs and hundreds of live performances across the world, Caravan of Thieves has been dazzling audiences with its unique sound and flamboyant style.

Composed of Sangiovanni along with his wife, Carrie Sangiovanni, who also provides vocals and guitar, Ben Dean on violin and Brian Anderson slapping the double bass, Caravan of Thieves can be best explained as the Beatles meets Django Reinhardt at Tim Burton’s house.

Advertisement

Combining old school gypsy-swing music with a mix of fan-favorite covers, Caravan of Thieves supplements its live shows with comedy, audience participation and a high-intensity performance every night. Calling from their home in Bridgeport, Conn., Fuzz and Carrie recall how audiences who aren’t as familiar with their work have reacted to their performances.

“When we first started the band, it was definitely a mixed reaction. For some audiences, it took half the show to understand what we’re doing. They have this kind of look on their faces like ‘What is this?’, and then they start to kind of warm up to it,” said Carrie.

“Fun cover songs that people know help, like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ or Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller,’ and we do them through our spin. It makes it easier to understand what we do when they hear it in a familiar format,” added Fuzz.

The audience reaction is part of what keeps the couple performing night after night.

“The connection that we make every night is a really unique experience. We break down the walls and that’s the way that we like it. By the end of the show I feel really satisfied when the audience has been moved and you get the feedback, which is the ultimate thing,” said Carrie.

“Still, at the end of the day, our job is not just make friends and make a connection with them but show them a good time and entertain them, and that’s what they came out for. It feels good to know you entertained an audience as best you can,” said Fuzz.

Sometimes being onstage is the easiest part of being in a band. When asked what it’s like being married to her musical partner of more than seven years, Carrie put it bluntly.

“It’s been a work in progress,” she laughed. “I think we’ve learned over the years that we have to find a way to keep it separate. We tend to find the need to compromise, sometimes let things sit. Where you might crash at first, you might come back later and find that you agree on the same thing in a different way. It’s important to keep your mind open and it’s good to have somebody to bounce ideas off of,” Carrie said.

How Carrie and Fuzz met, planting the seeds of Caravan of Thieves, occurred by total coincidence.

“Living in Burlington, Vt. I was a singer-songwriter. I often performed at a venue called Necter’s, and he had a band called Big Fuzz that was scheduled to play there. He told the booking agent to cancel the show and he forgot to cancel it and when I came to play a show, he happened to be there that night. That was the start of us. We started dating a few weeks after and five months later we were engaged and a year-and-a-half later, we were married,” Carrie remembered.

As for the future, the goal is straightforward.

“To pursue success is simply to do the thing we want to do, uninterrupted. We want to be able to create the music we want to create and put on the show we want to put on with as little limitations on that as possible,” Fuzz stated.

Along with a fourth CD release projected for 2013, Fuzz and Carrie are looking forward to their second time performing at the Sellersville Theater on Jan. 12.

“We’re gonna try to do things people look forward to hearing,” he said. “Some of the songs from our albums audiences respond to the most and we’ve got a couple new things people have never heard. We’re excited to come back to Sellersville; we think that venue is one of the nicest ones on the East Coast. We had such a great time the last time we performed there, but we performed with other artists. This performance is our night.”